Melitopol

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Melitopol
Мелітополь

Seal
Coordinates: 46°50′N 35°22′E / 46.833°N 35.367°E / 46.833; 35.367
Country Ukraine
Oblast Zaporizhia
Established 1784
Government
 - Mayor Dmytro Viktorovich Sychov
Area
 - Total 51 km2 (19.7 sq mi)
Population (January 1, 2007)
 - Total 158,700
Postal Index 72300
Twin Cities
 - Brive-la-Gaillarde France
Website http://www.mlt.gov.ua

Melitopol (Ukrainian: Мелітополь, translit. Melitopol’, Russian: Мелитополь) is a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast[1] of the southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna[2] River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the Sea of Azov. The city was formerly named Kyzyl-Yar until 1816, and Novoalexandrovka until 1842. Serving as the administrative center of the Melitopolskyi Raion,[3] the city itself is directly subordinate to the oblast center. The estimated population as of 2007 is around 158,700.[4] Generally, the Russian language is spoken in the city.

Melitopol is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Comnission Intercultural cities programme.

Contents

[edit] History

In ancient times, there was a small Noghai aul of Kyzyl-Yar where the modern Melitopol is settled. In July 1769, Russian military commanders built a redoubt there, and Zaporizhia Cossacks carried out their duty service there. On February 2, 1784, Ekaterina II issued the decree to create the Taurian Province on the lands that had been won back. The deputy of Novorossiya His Highness Prince Potemkin signed the relation to establish a town that very year - and Cossacks' families and those of retired soldiers of Suvorov settled on the right bank of the Molochna River. In 1816, the settlement got the name sloboda of Novoalexandrovka. Its population was increasing due to the importation of peasants from the northern provinces of the Ukraine and Russia. On January 7, 1842, the sloboda was recognized as a town and received the new name of Melitopol after a port city of Melita (from Greek Μέλι (meli) - "honey") which had been situated on the mouth of the Molochna River. At the end of the XIX century, the Honey-city[5] had been developed as a trade center - there were some banks, credit organizations and wholesale stores. The largest enterprises in the city at the time were the iron foundry and the Brothers Klassen's machinery construction factory (1886), the railroad depot and the workshops.

[edit] Melitopol in World War II

In 1941, the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany. The city became strategically important due to its location. The Red Army was not ready for the war and had to retreat. The Nazis occupied Melitopol on October 6, 1941.

[edit] Occupation and nutrition issues

[6]

The Germans kept centralized supplement. The Soviet Mezhraybaza sel'khozsnaba i himsnaba (Russian: Межрайбаза сельхозснаба и химснаба) of Melitopol still ran. In fact, a variety of agriculture items were stored at the base, including fertilizers, pesticides, tools, spare parts for reaping machines and binders, etc. It supported the running enterprises of Melitopol and surrounding settlements with goods. Since the Soviet monetary system remained, the enterprises paid the Soviet rubles and kopecks, not the German marks. Also, no one of the enterprises was renamed, including the Kaganovich artel, the collective farm of the Red Cossacks, the artel of Lenin's Way. However, the Germans were not tolerant to the Soviet order. The amount of German language documents began to increase and interpreters became strongly required. Most of the people who were ready to collaborate with the Germans were not competent enough in their language. Taking account of this fact, the German commanders submitted bilingualism:

To all of the heads of the villages.

On receiving this, You must organize following:

For all of the establishments, which are on Your territory, You must make and write labels: For village offices, first-aid stations, hospitals, machinery and tractor stations, the offices of grain procurements, communal yard, fish factories etc. The labels must be written in the German and Ukrainian languages.

—A German officer, An order the spring of 1942

Selling, buying and killing the cattle and the poultry were strictly forbidden; they were severely controlled to be sent to Germany. The meat, milk and eggs were used to feed the soldiers. Notwithstanding the general prohibition, the population might kill animals by special permission.

Direction of the agriculture team of the district as of 16-IX-42.

To ask permission, one has to hand a pig over to the cattle procurement station and to receive the bill there. The considered pig's weight must not be less than 100 kg. The pig, which is supposed by the owner to be killed, must not be smaller than one having been left in the station. A family is allowed to kill one pig a year, also, one more pig may be cut for two families and shared between them.

—A German officer, A direction of September 16, 1942

Another way was to introduce a new holiday, to make people celebrate and eat together.

To the heads of the villages administrative boards, 29-IX-42.

On October 6, 1941, the victorious armies of Great Germany have entered our territory and from this day our territory is free from Stalin's Jeudo communistic gang. To honor setting Ukrainian people free it is necessary to set a holiday to all population. Upon this day working in communities, schools and establishments must be stopped. I recommend to spend the day relaxing, having organized any games and entertainments for children and cultural rest for adults. For carrying out the holiday it is allowed to prepare vodka and to cut animals, to make a good dinner.

The communities are allowed to buy one item of horned livestock from kolkhoz farmers to make a dinner for all members in the brigades of a given community, and where the collective farm livestock is based, then it is possible to take it from the kolkhoz herd to prepare the common dinner. On the day of the holiday, collect meeting and the head of the village board will speak with greetings...

—A German officer, An order of September 29, 1942

Celebrations, which were not introduced by the Nazi, were not welcome. Feasts, plays and especially dances were prohibited until the war would be over. The punishment for infringement of the prohibition was a fine and an arrest.

[edit] Resistance

[edit] The Wotan Line Battle

[edit] Battles for the city

[edit] Culture

Melitopol has 38 monuments, memorials and statues registered.[7]

Statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky

One of them is the statue of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the famous hetman of Ukraine. His images are printed on Ukrainian 5 hryvnia's banknotes.

T-70. This memorial is a real tank, which was used in the battle for Melitopol's liberation

[edit] Special notes

[edit] The Stone Grave

There is the unique relic of the Stone Grave (Ukrainian: Кам'яна могила, translit. Kamyana mohyla, Russian: Каменная могила) 12 kilometers north of Melitopol. It is a relic of sandstone from the Sarmatian epoch of the Tertiary period. Its exact coordinates are 46°56′59.33″N 35°28′11.59″E / 46.9498139°N 35.4698861°E / 46.9498139; 35.4698861

[edit] Novobogdanovka

On May 6, 2004, the munition depots of Novobogdanovka, a village in the Melitopolskyi Raion, caught fire. The depot had been storing various rockets, which began to explode, littering numerous houses with debris, blowing out their windows and destroying their walls. Some sources have reported that soldiers guarding the depot caused the explosion through accidental carelessness with their lit cigarette butts.[8] The accident later occurred several more times because the arms had been already damaged by the very first fire and become untransportable. After the accidents officials stated that it was necessary to disarm the depots and that the only measure available to do so was to carry out controlled explosions on a regular basis.[9] However, the controlled explosions took several lives too. As of April 2008, the depots have been almost completely disarmed,[10]

[edit] Cherry

A symbol of Melitopol is Chereshnya Melitopolskaya,[11] a type of Wild Cherry for which the city is known.

[edit] Town twinning

Melitopol is currently twinned with:

[edit] Education

In 1874, a technical school was founded in the city, which, after a series of reforms and transformations, became Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy. The city now has two universities − the Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy[12] and the Melitopol State Pedagogical University.[13]

[edit] Transportation

  • Melitopol has a railroad station that serves as the transit point for passengers going from Moscow to the Crimea and back. The city is also called the "gateway to the Crimea".
  • The city has two bus stations: the more new intercity station and the old station of local buses. Two highways lead through Melitopol: The M14 Odesa-Novoazovsk Highway and the M26 Kharkiv-Simferopol National Highway.
  • The marshrutkas are the sole kind of the city's public transport. They run 34 routes. They work from 5:00 a.m. till 12:30 a.m. (from 05:30 till 00:30). Formerly, in the days of existing the USSR, there were buses of Ikarus, LiAZ, LAZ, PAZ running around 15 routes.
  • The common length of the roads of Melitopol is 333 km, 70% of them do not meet the basic requirements.

[edit] Industry

There is a well-developed, internationally important engine-constructing industry. There are also food, light, and construction materials industries.

[edit] Native born

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oblast means province
  2. ^ Milky
  3. ^ Raion means district
  4. ^ The data from Melitopol's official site - mlt.gov.ua (uk.)
  5. ^ i.e. Melitopol, this is how Melitopol sometimes is referred in the local mass-media
  6. ^ "«Новый порядок»: день за днем ("The new order": Day after day)" (in Russian). Melitopol: Мелитопольские Ведомости (Melitopol News). 2007-10-31.  This newspaper article is used as the only source for this subsection. It cites the public archive information.
  7. ^ The data from Melitopol's official site - mlt.gov.ua (uk.)
  8. ^ 2004 Darwin Award: The Army's a Blast
  9. ^ citation needed
  10. ^ "Новобогданівку підірвали. Знищено понад 28 тисяч тонн боєприпасів (Novobogdanovka's blown up. Over 28 tons of munition destroyed)" (in Ukrainian) (HTML). NEWSru.ua. http://newsru.ua/ukraine/25apr2008/novobogdanovka.html. Retrieved 2008-04-25. "Піротехніки МНС майже завершили роботи зі знищення ракет і снарядів на 275-ій артбазі у Новобогданівці. Тепер вона віддалено нагадує місячний пейзаж. Від смертоносних залишків НС в 2004-2006 роках очистили всі 145 га площ, повідомляє газета "Сегодня"."  - (The Mynestry of emergencies' pyrotechnicians have almost completed the work on destroying the missiles and shells in the 275th munition base in Novobogdanovka. Now, it has some kind of lunar landscape. From 2004 to 2006, the deadly rests were removed from all the territories estimated at 145 hectare, the newspaper of "Segodnya" reports.)
  11. ^ translated Melitopol Cherry
  12. ^ Taurian State Agrotechnological Academy official site
  13. ^ Melitopol State Pedagogical University official site
 
Administrative divisions of Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine
Administrative center:  Zaporizhia
Raions Flag of Ukraine

Coat of arms of Zaporizhia Oblast
Cities
Urban-type
settlements
Villages
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